ment outcomes in these patients.Cancer care can be taxing. Alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing feeling and emotions, an externally-oriented thinking style and scarcity of imagination and fantasy, is significantly correlated with higher levels of both secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout and lower levels of compassion satisfaction in medical professionals in radiation oncology. In this study, we aimed to assess the difference in professional quality of life (QoL) and the association with alexithymia in this multidisciplinary field depending on the specific profession (radiation/clinical oncologist, RO; medical physicist, MP; radiation therapist, RTT).
The study was conducted via an online questionnaire, receiving 1500 submissions between May and October 2018. Alexithymia was assessed via the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and professional QoL was evaluated using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQoL) version 5. Comparisons between the RO, RTT, and MP groupsexithymia as a factor contributing to decreased professional QoL amongst radiation oncology professionals. Alexithymic ROs are impacted to a higher extent compared to MPs and RTTs by the indirect exposure to patients suffering. It is worth addressing these observations in professional education, aiming to improve QoL for healthcare personnel.Alternatives to conventional meat are considered an increasingly important tool in the drive to reduce consumption of animal products for environmental, public health and ethical reasons. We present two waves of a cross-sectional survey from a nationally representative sample in Belgium in 2019 (n = 1001) and 2020 (n = 1000). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/harmine.html Participants answered questions online about their diets, attitudes towards existing plant-based meat alternatives, and attitudes towards cultured meat (grown from animal cells). We find that the proportion of Belgian consumers who said existing plant-based meat alternatives met their needs increased significantly from 44% in 2019 to 51% in 2020. We also find a significant increase in concern for issues related to animal agriculture, in particular the environment. We found no significant change in attitudes towards cultured meat between the two waves; in both 2019 and 2020, 39.3% of Belgian consumers said they would buy cultured meat. Regression analyses revealed that plant-based alternatives were more appealing to women and those with vegetarian diets, whilst cultured meat was more appealing to men. Overall, just 11.2% of consumers are both unsatisfied with existing meat alternatives and unwilling to buy cultured meat, while 43.2% of respondents were positive towards either plant-based or cultured meat, but not both, highlighting the need for a variety of alternative proteins in the market. Both cultured meat and plant-based meat were more appealing to younger consumers and those in the northern, predominantly Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and those seeking to strategically displace demand for animal products.Interventions based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) are usually effective at increasing fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, but it is not known whether individuals with misperceived intake [e.g., in pseudomaintenance (PM)] for FV intake also benefit from these interventions. This study aims to describe the effectiveness of a TTM-based intervention for FV intake according to baseline perception of intake adequacy. A randomized controlled community trial was carried out with 3414 users of a health promotion service in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, aged 20 years or over, in 2013-2014. FV intake was estimated using a validated instrument. PM was identified when participants had insufficient FV intake and thought their intake was adequate. The intervention group (IG) received a TTM-based intervention, and the control group (CG) received usual care. Baseline FV intakes were lower among individuals in PM compared to those with a concordant perception (CP). In both the IG and CG, FV intake increased among those in PM. Fruit intake remained stable, and vegetable intake decreased among those with CP. Generalized estimating equations revealed a significant effect of the intervention on fruit intake at follow-up, which was slightly higher among those in PM. We conclude that participants in PM were partially sensitive to the intervention and improved fruit intake at follow-up. We suggest that future studies emphasize vegetable intake and elucidate how TTM pillars (self-efficacy, decisional balance, processes of change) can be best used to increase FV intake.Avian H7N9 influenza virus, which emerged in 2013 China, had caused the fifth wave of peaks in 2016-2017. Gansu Province locate in western China far away from the epicenter of the virus, also detected cases in this wave. During the monitoring, five human cases with H7N9 virus infection, three cases in Jiuquan and two cases in Zhangye, were reported and investigated. A total of 88 environmental samples collected from March to June, in poultry farms and live poultry markets were H7N9 positive by real time RT-PCR assay. The two human viruses were identified as LPAI viruses, and phylogenetic analysis showed that the viruses might be introduced into Gansu by two distinct trade routes. Avian influenza H7N9virus posed a pandemic potential to threaten human health, and monitoring among birds and the environment should be strengthened.Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can cause chronic lifelong infections in humans, resulting in sustained hepatic inflammation, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The clearance of HCV infections is dependent upon effective and coordinated innate and adaptive antiviral immune responses. However, HCV has evolved a range of strategies that enable it to evade or overcome the host immune response, enabling the virus to persist in susceptible hosts through mechanisms that remain to be fully clarified. Herein, we describe a novel mechanism whereby HCV can evade immune surveillance by activating microRNA (miR)-125a. Hepatocytes upregulate miR-125a following HCV infection, and serum from HCV-infected patients similarly exhibits the upregulation of this miRNA. We found that miR-125a is able to target and suppress the expression of two key genes associated with the interferon (IFN) signaling pathway - mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) and TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6). Disrupting the expression of these genes can in turn compromise type I IFN responses to HCV.